Pat Caputo - Above all, Red Wings must be honest with themselves

Plan? What plan? Thatís the problem with the Red Wings as their extended off season begins.

Missing the playoffs for the first time in more than a quarter century is one thing, uncertainty moving forward another.

General manager Ken Holland has made it clear the Red Wings arenít going into total rebuilding mode. OK, so what is the plan?

Identifying issues the Red Wings must correct doesnít require channeling hockey gods. Figuring out the fixes is much more complex.

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It begins with Holland, coach Jeff Blashill and the entire Red Wingsí organization being honest to themselves.

The Red Wingsí troubles last season were not a one-year fluke. They were not just the product of injuries. The Red Wings were not a good team. Period.

The organization must stopping looking at even the most basic hockey metrics, which cut open the Red Wings for what they really are, as if they are some sort of bizarre rocket science that should be banned from hockey fans across Canada, the United States and Newfoundland...

You know, like Corsi FC% in close games. All it is a simple formula which determines puck possession in games that are within a goal or tied at even strength. The importance is one team is not attacking or laying back more than the other based on score. The objective strategically is essentially the same.

Last season, the Red Wings were 28th in the NHL at 47.4 percent in that revealing situation, ahead of only Colorado and Arizona. They need to get that percentage over 51 percent. How? The eyeball test - and the metrics of the Red Wingsí defensive corps player by player - suggests they need to move the puck way better out of their own end. It is a constant struggle. Crystal clear. Painful. But somehow, some way, the Red Wings must find puck moving defensemen.

Even strength in close games is just one measure. Others, obviously, are special teams and goalie play. They are equalizers. The Red Wingsí power play was ranked 27th in the NHL with just a 15.1 percent success rate. Again, it goes back to the blue line. Other than veteran Mike Green, who ideally would be quarterbacking a second power unit, there is just not a lot there. Danny DeKeyser had a very disappointing season. Nick Jensen was OK - for Nick Jensen. Niklas Kronwall is not the player he used to be, although he could fit effectively (his puck possession metrics did rise later in the season as his health improved) in a more limited role. But the Red Wings desperately need a No.1 defensive pairing.

Free agency is a losing proposition for the most part. Value for value trades are necessary. You have to give up something to get something. Time for Holland to dip his toe in the hot tub and be right as he enters the final season of his current contract.

Goaltending is a problem for the Red Wings. Chances of Las Vegas taking the contracts of either Petr Mrazek or Jimmy Howard off their hands ($9.5 million combined in a hard salary cap league in 2017-18) in the expansion draft is wishful thinking. The Red Wings were 25th in save percentage in 2016-17.

Given Howardís age and Mrazekís decline, and none of their recent goalie draft picks being remotely ready for the NHL, the Red Wings would be wise to overhaul their goaltending. How? It gets back to trades.

This isnít to suggest the Red Wingsí situation is hopeless. Itís rather to point out it will be if they continue to spin their wheels in the direction of overvaluing their own players, relying solely on free agency to make upgrades and refusing to ever, really, shake up the deck with trades.

The statistics from this past season - conventional and metrics - donít lie.